Fayth Rewarded
by Snboarder592
Summary: Tikku fic for eveyone thats craving it! Its not too long after the defeat of vegnagun and Yuna has yet to come to grips with the fact that Tidus may never come back. But someone else isn't ready to let it go either.


**I don't own square enix, final fantasy, or any of the hot, CGI models that have been provided for us in this installment of the final fantasy series. TIKKU fic for all those craving it. Let me know what you think!**

**FFX-2: Fayth Rewarded**

**Beginnings**

The golden sun shone down on the smooth, white sand on the shore of Besaid Island. Three young ladies lounged on towels, drying off after an afternoon of swimming in the blue, tropical waters. All three ladies barely looked like they scratched 20 years old. They were young, and in amazing shape. The occasional passerby or morning jogger definitely looked twice, if not more.

"Hey Rikku, could you splash some tanning lotion on my back?" said the girl with light, brown hair. The world class summoner and two time world savior couldn't tan to save her life. She was no ghost, by any means. Her skin was smooth, milky, almost angelic. She was no supermodel, but years of fighting and running had flattened and toned her stomach, and she had just enough in all the right places to fill out her dark, purple bikini nicely. Her hair was a couple inches above shoulder length, and fell perfectly around her face, only flaring out slightly at the bottom. She turned her head and looked towards her cousin.

"RIKKU!"

Chocolate brown eyes met deep, misty, swirled cerulean. So much like his, she thought.

"Mmmm, what do you want, Yunie?"

Yuna was lost in thought for a second.

"Oh, glad to see you awake, finally. Could you rub some tanning lotion on my back?"

Lids covered the swirled, cerulean eyes.

"Ugh, no, I don't wanna get up! I wanna sleep! Grr, fine, only cause you're my cousin."

The girl slowly stood up. She slowly stretched, letting out a slight whine as she stretched her back. The sun glistened off her smooth, taut, bronzed stomach and a slight breeze caught her hair. The result was a rippling display of autumn colors as the sun caught her brown hair with blond tips and occasional pockets of auburn. She pulled at her top which had slipped uncomfortably low. She finally finished growing and she was quite the woman, and it showed in her golden, yellow bikini. Being Al Bhed, she was naturally lean, but coupled with the fighting and work she's done her whole life, she was the most in shape of the three on the beach. She stood up to go find the tanning lotion.

"Hey, you're in the way of my sun."

Rikku quickly hopped out of the way. She looked back to see one red eye glaring at her.

"Oopsies...sorry Paine! Don't hurt me!"

Paine's red eye concealed itself again behind a pale lid before she responded

"I don't tan anyways."

Paine really never tanned. She'd be lucky if she didn't burn though. Even so, she had glowing, white skin that complemented her short, gray hair. Her black and red designed bikini hugged her nicely, with a body no one expected her to have since she hid most of it under her fairly modest attire. She had an almost ethereal look, one could almost consider her angelic until she looked at you with those blood red eyes and a trademark scowl.

Rikku absentmindedly rubbed some lotion on her cousin's back. Her eyes drifted to the tattoo she had put on her back. It was a large, elaborate symbol, closely resembling a J. It stood for Jecht, a man who gave everything he had to ensure a better life for his son. A son who would eventually kill him, and bring peace to everyone.

Rikku continued tracing the J long after the lotion came off her hands. Yuna noticed what was going on, and said to her cousin,

"Rikku...you ok?"

Rikku came back to semi-reality and stopped rubbing the symbol.

"Do you think...Will we ever really see him again?"

Yuna shifted uncomfortably on her towel.

"I don't know, Rikku, I don't know. Maechen said, there's always a way to be with the ones you love."

Paine looked as close as she could at the two girls faces to see who was sadder. It seemed impossible to tell, and for good reason. She knew what was in both of her friends' minds. She thought back to the end of their last adventure.

_A few weeks ago_

_Yuna looked out at the spring with a forlorn expresssion. Rikku had a knowing look in her eye, and shooed Paine away. The last thing Paine saw was Yuna putting one hand over her chest and two fingers into her mouth, to whistle. Then, she knelt down to the water, and slowly, misty tears started to find their way into the water._

_Rikku looked to pain with her bottom lip between her teeth._

"_Paine, two years ago, at this camp, Yuna started having an emotional breakdown. We had just been cast from Bevelle, deemed traitors of Yevon, and there was almost no point in continuing our pilgrimage. But she was so determined that his father was alive somewhere. She wanted to go on, she said for Spira, but she cared so much for him. You could tell she would do anything to see him happy."_

_Rikku looked at Paine with a pained expression and took a deep breath._

"_But Paine, she just doesn't know...I loved him too! I don't want to be self righteous, but, I was the one who found him, rescued him, got him oriented to Spira for crying out loud! I got to know him for so long and then Sin came and took him away. I searched for so long, but I just couldn't find him. Then Dad told me that my cousin from Besaid had started her pilgrimage and a tan, blond haired young man claiming to be from Zanarkand was one of her guardians. I knew then it had to be him! When we finally met up again, and Yunie asked me to be her guardian, I was ecstatic that we were close again. And then, when I found out he wasn't actually real..."_

_Rikku started to break down. She clutched herself._

"_So they came here. Yuna had her breakdown. And Tidus, he left the camp and came here. Me and Auroun were the only ones up...He walked away but I peeked through one of the trees. Yunie was in the middle of the lake, I felt so bad for her. She was crying, her tears dripping into the water. And then, he, Tidus went...and...they kissed. They didn't just kiss, Paine, it was a KISS. It was so wrong to watch, but I couldn't help it. Because seeing the way she was afterwards, she was so much happier and so much more driven. But I couldn't help but think. What if he held Me that way, kissed Me like that, touched Me like that. But now he's gone, and we're both heartbroken, but I just go on suffering in silence..."_

_Rikku let a few tears fall from her face as she looked at Paine with a look of utter despair. Paine looked at Rikku and sighed. She knew what it was like to want someone you couldn't have. Someone who one day just would disappear on you._

_She looked at Rikku and said "I won't say anything about this if you don't tell anyone what I'm about to do."_

_Paine moved forward to Rikku and put her arms in a warm, friendly hug. Rikku's eyes opened a bit from shock. She never knew Paine could give this kind of compassion._

_Paine let her go a few moments later. Rikku mumbled a thanks and dried her eyes as Yuna came around a corner and they set off, all of them with thoughts of the men they longed for._

Paine looked at the youngest Gullwing reflectively. When they had started their adventure, Rikku had always been the least matured of the group. Being only 19, while Yuna was about 23 and Paine was 28, she always was the kid of the group. But hearing her talk like that, it was like she became a whole other person. Whenever she talked about this Tidus, it was like she changed. She was much more mature, and spoke in depth about everything. She got very melancholy when she talked about how she missed him, but had a light in her eye whenever she would recall a memory of him playing blitzball or fighting fiends.

Paine wondered what was going to have to happen to set them at peace, heck, what would it take her to come to terms with HER faded flame.

"Hey guys, you need to come here ASAP. The temple commspheres and the one in the farplane are all acting up."

Shinra's voice cut into their peaceful downtime, but it sounded like this was no sphere hunting matter. YRP were needed yet again.

**Ok so let me know what you think, I'll try to update again soon!**


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